Happy Valley Indeed

I lalalalove being home. Christmas break is just long enough to make me settle into a comfortable rhythm of lounging and playing around-- aka make me frown upon the idea of returning to Provo. Tears were shed at the SeaTac airport but by the time we arrived at Salt Lake International I was giddy at the thought of another two months in the Happy Valley of Provo. When I first found out I wouldn't be going on my mission until the end of March, I was a little disappointed that I'd have this weird limbo time. BUT BUT BUT. Provo never disappoints and it's been a fun past nine days! Missin' some of my main girls as we begin to scatter! London, Spain, Georgia, Chile; it's definitely a new chapter. I feel like I have nothing to blog about but I also feel like I'm checking off something on my to-do list when I blog so, thank you for helping me feel productive when I've just played around all day today.

Exploring Seattle Part II

Jen had a meeting in Seattle and I tagged along for the ride (read: jen wanted to be able to use the hov lane)!  She was meeting at a restaurant in the aptly named U District. So while she wined and dined (metaphorically) with her bosses I wandered around the University of Washington!

 

Only in Seattle can you find rows and rows of rain gear with your alma matter emblazoned upon it.

We're still tourists but we're okay with it. Thanks for being sunny a handful of times over the break, Seattle! You are an absolute treasure.

Exploring Seattle Part I

So Seattle is nicknamed the Emerald City because it's so green. My fam has found this to be weirdly true... all the trees are either still alive and kicking, or the leaves have fallen off but the branches are now covered moss. Aka they're green too. As much as I'd love to be in Texas for Christmas, it's been a blast to be able to explore this new city. Jen and I are lucky to have pals from BYU who live nearby here in Washington so we totally have friends to hang out with and plans for New Years, so you can stop losing sleep over it! Haha. Last night we took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island. It wasn't raining, wasn't too cold, and the company was great.

 

All pictures by our friend Andrew, who is apparently a professional photographer! Literally!

Thanksgiving Preview

I wish Thanksgiving and Christmas were further apart. I just spent the most relaxing, happy, wonderful, six pound inducing (you think i'm kidding) eleven days with my family up in Washington. I have about a trillion things to do and then in three short weeks I'll be back! I'll do a full fledged break play by play sometime later this week but I have a project due in a few hours so here are two pictures that sum up my entire Thanksgiving break.

Two Days

Two days and I can sit at this kitchen table and do fallish art projects with my favorite babies. 

YIPPITY SKIPPITY!

Tata Summer!

To be completely honest I'm surprised at how sad I am to leave and head back to Provo! Well, let me rephrase that. I'm thrilled to get back to Provo. I like my freedom and independence. But I'm very sad to be leaving my family and this new place that I kinda sorta consider home, for now. Life has settled into a happy, normal pattern. My life lately has consisted of-

Going to get our Washington drivers licenses... weird but fine!

Practically acquiring carpal tunnel syndrome from writing so many of my favorite boys who are out serving missions. Gosh I miss my friends. Oh hey if you are not LDS and do not know what I'm talking about, this explains what they do better than I can!

Going to fun parks like Newcastle Beach Park and Meydenbauer Park that are on Lake Washington

Seriously. Could not be any more charming. Also it was nice to be in a swimsuit as opposed to the rain jackets and jeans and fleeces worn earlier in the "summer."

Personally, summer = ice cream.

Especially really really great chic hipster too cool ice cream boutiques like Molly Moon's.

Getting toilet papered. This picture cracks me up but I will not give the young men who participated in the defacing of my front yard the satisfaction of putting this on any other social networking site.

Getting over the weirdness/lump in your throat when your pals from home send you pictures like this- someone else's van in our old driveway.

Getting over my mega huge massive crush on Ryan Lochte. Yikes!

Goodbye Seattle! Surprisingly, I'll miss you.

Seattle Happenings

This summer has been a great one! Once we finally settled in to our house here in Seattle and stopped unpacking long enough to play tourist its been so much fun! 

Contributing to the famous Gum Wall

Visiting the famous Pikes Place Market

Enjoying some of the best berries I've ever tasted

Some of the best fresh produce period actually!

Baptisms at the Seattle temple with Chris

Whale watching in the San Juan Islands

 

Which is basically Canada (read: it was freezing) but very fun!

 

Lots of hikes for the whole fam!

We have really grown to love the culture here. It may not be Southern Hospitality, per se, but we have felt warmly welcomed by the kind strangers we've encountered and interacted with. Thanks Mom & Dad for planning lots of fun day trips that not all of which have been properly documented! 

The Washington Report

First, let's take note of my witty post title. Oh ho ho. Okay so part of me wants to stay loyal to Texas and say it's just awful here but it's not. We love it here. 

Here are some of the things we're loving...
(if you click on the pic you can see a hi-res version)

Fresh fruit! Blueberries, blackberries, cherries, nectarines, blah blah blah we have yet to try fruit that isn't fabulous. 

Downtown Seattle! We've only actually gone downtown once, that's how many things there are to do here in Bellevue. But Seattle is just so cool. So much to do.

Downtown Bellevue! It has some of the best shopping I've ever seen. Adorable little shops and a great big park that is very Central Park-esque. The fireworks we watched on the Fourth were spectacular too.

Hiking! It's been really awesome to have the great outdoors so accesible. We literally live on a mountain (weird weird weird) so trails are minutes away from our front door. The above pic is so heinous but I was trying to show that it was cold enough (42 degrees thank you very much) that we could see our breath. It was too funny not to put up. And the slugs... yeah they're everywhere it's disgusting. They're so so big too. Blech. Makes me feel sick.

We love our house. It's really pretty and the backyard is huge and perfect. We feel so blessed and very happy!

The wildlife. And I'm actually not loving it. I think it's weird and hilarious. This is a dead mole. There are cougars and wolfs and bears and snakes that have been spotted in our neighborhood. Wahoo!

And now that the sunshine has fiiiiinaaaaaaaaally come out, we can finally appreciate the reason that Bellevue  is French for 'Beautiful View.'

We are so grateful for the warm welcome we've received. There are so many good people here! But we miss our Texas friends very much! Visits are encouraged :)